Issue link: https://te.mouser.com/i/1351123
MEDICAL SENSORS / WHITE PAPER Sensors for Medical Pump Applications PAGE 2 AS THE NEED FOR MEDICAL ADVANCES INCREASE, SENSING TECHNOLOGY WILL CONTINUE TO BE THE FOUNDATION TO EVOLVE THE MEDICAL INDUSTRY INTO A MORE CONNECTED, RELIABLE AND SAFE OPERATION. ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS IN MEDICAL EQUIPMENT, DEVICES AND PROBES RELY ON SENSOR SIGNALS AS A BASIS FOR CONTROL ACTIVITIES, ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT. Those systems are evolving to include more sophisticated capabilities while maintaining or improving their reliability. They are becoming more intuitive to use and there continues to be a push towards more mobile and connected medical products. Additionally, even though the healthcare industry has been slower to adopt the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies than other industries, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is poised to transform how we keep people safe and healthy especially as the demand to lower healthcare costs increases. These trends have increased the overall demand for sensors in medical products and devices, but it is also pushing those sensors to be smaller, faster, more accurate and more reliable. And for most manufacturers, budgets are limited, meaning low-cost components are ideal. Therefore, sensor innovations reaching the market need to feature smaller form factors while maintaining high functionality and affordability. Sensors play a critical role in a wide range of medical functions including various medical pump and flow applications. An infusion pump is a type of medical pump device that delivers fluids, such as nutrients and medications, into a patient's body in precise and accurate prescribed volumes over a specified time. These types of medical pumps are in widespread use in clinical settings such as hospitals, nursing homes and in-home settings since they offer significant advantages over manual administration of fluids. These advantages include the ability to administer very small doses, confirm programmed volumes and reducing employee workload due to automated administration. Because infusion pumps are frequently used to administer critical fluids, including high-risk medications, pump failures can have significant implications for patient safety. Many infusion pumps are equipped with safety features, such as alarms or other operator alerts that are intended to activate in the event of a problem. For example, some pumps are designed to alert patients and staff when air or another blockage is detected in the tubing. Some newer infusion pumps, often called smart pumps, are designed to alert the user when there is a risk of an adverse drug interaction, or when the user sets the pump's parameters outside of specified safety limits. Within traditional and smart pump applications, sensors are key components in controlling and monitoring infusion pumps. They are designed to provide occlusion detection, monitor fluid flow, provide feedback for motor control and in some instances, sense the temperature of the IV fluid being administered. The figure below illustrates the potential locations of sensors employed in a typical infusion pump. MONITORING THE FLOW RATE AND/OR POTENTIAL OCCLUSION DURING INFUSIONS IS AN APPLICATION FIELD FOR LOW RANGE COMPRESSION LOAD SENSORS ILLUSTRATION OF POTENTIAL SENSOR LOCATIONS INCLUDED IN TYPICAL INFUSION PUMP APPLICATION